Reply To: We Tip in 30 Days

Forum Forum Lehigh Sports Lehigh Men’s Basketball We Tip in 30 Days Reply To: We Tip in 30 Days

#28827

LU65
Participant

Opening on the road is always tough. This year it’s Cincinnati and their 10,250 fans ready to rock the Cintas Center. The “X-men” will be looking to make it 17 in a row for home-opener wins and it doesn’t seem to matter who the enemy is or has been – be it Miami (last year) or Northern Arizona (two years ago). In fact, Xavier has buried their opponents by an average of 27 points in each of the last four home-openers and put up an average of 93.5 ppg in doing so. On the other side of the ball, Lehigh has fallen to the likes of Syracuse, Villanova, Minnesota, and Baylor over the past four seasons by an average deficit of 15.5 points (63.0 to 78.5). But, in dropping those decisions we played, for the most part, well. In fact, some will remember we were up by 1 at the 13:14 mark of the 1st half up at the Carrier Dome (even snapped a picture of the scoreboard at that point) and then outscored The Orange by ten in the second half, 35-25. Two years ago, we stood tall against Villanova and found ourselves down by just two at the half. And, going back to the Minnesota Game in 2013, we played them even (44-44) in the second half. Winless for sure but we still managed to hold our own and weren’t scare-off by the competition. I would expect nothing less from us on November 11th of this year and look for AP (15, 24, and 12 ppg scoring in the last three openers) to lead the charge. Together with TK, KR, KL and a host of new and returning talent, I see us giving Xavier a good game and would be ready to “take the points” were I a betting man.

And, when it comes to Sports Message Boards, Xavier has one of the best. Check it out………….

http://www.xavierhoops.com/forum.php?s=9f531b1f0c7b633de3df3e423f39d551

You’ll see one poll where the readers were asked what is the “most anticipated” non-conference matchup. Lehigh pulled in 1.54% of the votes. Nice.